I edited this image during the Nevada-Boise State game last night - so those two field goal misses might have actually been my fault. My bad!
I’ve been feeling compelled to write about my thoughts college football again lately (I did blog a bit two seasons on a short-lived, now-defunct college athletics website I ran) – so here goes.
There has been a lot of talk lately about whether or not non-BCS conference teams such as TCU and Boise State have any business playing for the national title (obviously the Broncos are out after last night’s loss to Nevada). Actually, this has been going on for some time now. It’s just more likely that it could happen this season, prompting The Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee to insinuate that since TCU and Boise St. play “the Little Sisters of the Poor”, that they don’t deserve a shot at the national title – even if they were to run the table.
To give a bit of info/disclosure on my background, I have somewhat of a unique ability to understand both points of view. My allegiances in college football lie on the opposite ends of the FBS conference power spectrum – the SEC (Florida) and the Sun Belt (FIU – Congrats on your conference title by the way!). Prior to my days working for FIU Athletics, I also liked Miami (Fla.). However, things like this helped pushed “The U” down my list a bit (still well ahead of FSU, of course). My point being – I am empathetic toward both the “big” programs and the “mid-major” schools.
I think both TCU and Boise State may indeed be good enough to play for the national title. By that I mean, they are probably good enough to beat anyone in the country – including current Nos. 1 and 2 Oregon and Auburn. Having said that, I could also make the same claim for half the SEC, along with a few other teams from the Big 12, Pac-10 and Big 10. I’d at least concede that they may, however, be among the top five best teams in the country (as in I wouldn’t be surprised if either one made the semifinals of a hypothetical FBS playoff).
In the absence of this playoff system (which I still believe is THE best way to solve this), however, I do have to take strength of schedule into consideration. In sports like basketball (games not as grueling and less importance on a single game), I think the TCU’s and the Boise’s of the world would have a stronger case with their “quality wins.” However, there really is something to be said for playing football in the SEC. Yea, the non-conference schedules of some of the BCS schools aren’t too demanding. And TCU crushed a very good Baylor team while Boise State beat Virginia Tech (the best of a very weak ACC) out of conference. Still.
Like I said before, I feel TCU and Boise State can beat anyone in the country. Any given day. That is one game, however. When you have a schedule like their’s, those games against Baylor and VaTech are the highlights of the season. They are going to get up for those games a bit more. They aren’t going to be challenged like that though as often as teams in the SEC are when it comes to conference games. Utah, Nevada and a few others depending on the season aside, there is plenty of margin for error built into the schedule. Even games against 1-6 Ole Miss are a challenge for anyone in the SEC – and Ole Miss would probably be in contention for the title in the WAC.
No disrespect to Oregon, Auburn or TCU, although I think Alabama might still the best “team” in the country (Oregon a close second) even though they aren’t playing like it for some reason, and they would be my pick (a bit of a sleeper, admittedly) to win the national title in a playoff system. They are a three-loss team though and deservedly aren’t in the BCS picture. Perhaps it is a bit of a championship hangover for them, plus the rest of the SEC getting up for playing the defending champs. What I see though is, if you slip, take your foot off the gas for just a moment or just have a bit of a bad day against any team in the SEC – you pay for it and lose! If you do that in the Mountain West, you beat San Diego State by five (TCU 40 SDSU 35 on Nov. 13 just one week after their very convincing win over Utah).
In conclusion, playing through the argument (i.e. a playoff system) is the best way to determine a champion, and I’d really like to see Boise and TCU take on the big boys in that setting. If we had this BS in basketball we wouldn’t have had that amazing Duke-Butler title game last year. Or amazing runs from the Gonzagas, Valpos and George Masons of the world in years past.
Actually, playing every team home and away like European soccer teams do would be the best, that’s simply not feasible with 120 FBS teams! But given we are stuck with the Bull Crap System (BCS), I’d find it very hard to pass up a one-loss Big 12/Pac-10, or even a two-loss SEC team (note I’m not mentioning the other three BCS conferences). It just takes a hell of a lot more energy and effort to make it through the conference schedules that a loss is understandable, and acceptable.
Prior to last night’s win by Nevada, there was a very real possibility of having TCU and Boise State go unbeaten, with only one team getting into the BCS games. You can’t tell me ANYONE from the ACC or Big East is more deserving this season, and yet they get AQs. Boise State decided to take one for the team now and will get that bowl game that an unbeaten TCU might have been stuck with. They’ll play a decent BCS conference team like maybe Arizona (just guessing), in which I would hope the Broncos would run up the score and win 83-20 just to prove a point – and they probably could.
